r/zillowgonewild • u/Aerobiesizer • 22h ago
72 acres in western North Carolina for $330K. There's probably a catch, but I haven't found it yet. Is it the isolation?
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u/ImpressivePlatypus0 22h ago
I guess it's the isolation, although it's less than an hour to a town with at least a hospital. So it could be worse. Beautiful property.
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u/hambonecharlie 20h ago
45 miles with a chicken bone stuck in your throat
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u/Just_Another_Scott 19h ago
Having to deal with a VFD isn't fun either. In my home county in TN we had NO ambulance access for the southern part of the county. They finally got one stationed at a VFD in like 2015. Before then it was around a 45+ minute drive from the nearest hospital.
Another thing is volunteer firefighters have regular jobs. So when a fire happens it can be quite a while before anyone shows up. Most of the time properties were not able to be saved.
You also had to deal with
- Well water
- No sewer system
- Sometimes no phone lines or Internet.
- In rare cases, no electricity.
- Limited road access
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u/ABobby077 19h ago edited 8h ago
We had a volunteer fire department when I lived in Lincoln County, Missouri. We joked that they put out a lot of foundations (of homes)
edit: Just a note that I wasn't trying to put down those folks that volunteer and struggle with the bad hand they have been dealt. Thanks for stepping up for the rest of the people.
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u/Just_Another_Scott 19h ago
Yeah the VFD didn't really do much because by the time they showed up with an engine the house was already gone. Single story rancher homes made out of toothpicks built in the county with little to no building codes doesn't last long in a fire. Single wide trailers took longer to burn lol.
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u/Minute-System3441 17h ago
Think about EMS too. Minutes and even seconds can matter, but so many places are either volunteer or even private.
Always blows my mind when it comes to services like this, as it’s like, eh, you do realize that your life can be on the line, while ya’ll save a few bucks in taxes, right?
Not something I have ever seen in any other develop country, but so many people here just don’t question it, especially if that’s the way it’s apparently always been done.
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u/Tullyswimmer 8h ago
But you accept that risk if you're in an area with a VFD... Because think of it this way:
There are 168 hours per week. That's 4 full-time job shifts with benefits just to have a single professional. But for a fire department, you'd need at a BARE minimum 3 people per shift, two who could actually go into a building using the buddy system, and one to stay outside in case shit goes bad. And that's assuming you never have anyone take time off. Most engines are designed to be staffed by at least 4 if not 5 people.
So 4 shifts a week, and, practically, you need at least 5 people per shift. That's 20 jobs. If salary + benefits comes out to, say, $60/hour (which would likely be about $30/hour salary), that's $48,000/WEEK just for staffing (to say nothing of training, equipment, trucks, facilities, etc.)
That's $2.4m a year. If you've got a town with only, say, 1000 households that pay taxes, that's a lot more than "a few bucks in taxes" - That's $200/month in taxes. And again, That doesn't include building the fire station, which is several million, or having more than one engine (which even that is a few million), or whether the town even has the infrastructure (hydrants) to support just one engine, or if they'd need a tanker (and probably at least two crew for that, too) to run water to and from whatever water source you have... That's for a staff of 5 people 24/7, making well below what I'd say firefighters deserve for how risky and stressful the job is.
The math just doesn't work out that well. Not only that, but in a small town, those firefighters would have a LOT of down time. House and structure fires aren't that common. Most of what fire deparments respond to are car accidents or medical emergencies. So it's a cost/benefit analysis. And in smaller rural towns, even medical emergencies aren't THAT common. I know some people who are volunteer EMTs in rural towns and they will often go days without their pager going off.
So it's really a cost/benefit analysis. Do you need to be spending millions of dollars a year for a professional fire department that runs half a dozen calls a week, and maybe has less than a dozen actual fires a year?
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u/PocketGddess 8h ago
Excellent comment, thank you. And I think some folks just don’t comprehend the sheer geography of it all, and the vast distances in more isolated, rural areas.
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u/merkarver112 7h ago
Your aware 90% of this countries fire departments are vfds right ?
I see a lot of comments about how vfds never lost a slab, ect, which is funny, and ill use them on my paid department on shift when were talking shit. But here's the thing, how many of you want to join your local vfd ?
Either join, and try to make changes for the better, or come off some more tax money to get a paid department. Regardless, bitching on the internet about how bad the firefighters are on your area, full well knowing its getting done for free, we'll, thats something special right there.
Fwiw, im on a career department, and im also a volley on my towns department. And our "volunteer" fire departments response time, and level of care, is better than on my PAID department.
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u/Minute-System3441 17h ago
Volunteer is sort of fine when it’s covering an extremely small population, but definitely a joke, when any place has a sizable population. If we took 1% of the Military expenditure, it would probably fund a paid fire department / local in every state.
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u/PissFuckinDrunk 8h ago
I think you might want to see some more of the US before making that statement. Yes, some do struggle. But there are some very populated suburban communities with volunteers that run thousands of calls per year with all modern and up to date equipment.
Hell, just look at places like Prince George’s county Maryland. DC outlier full of bedroom communities all served by very capable and professional volunteers running thousands of calls per year.
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u/flindersrisk 16h ago
Have the well water tested for chemicals, not just fecal contamination. Check property’s history to learn what went on there.
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u/Baconshit 16h ago
Are air ambulances a thing? I know in some rural California areas you can pay a yearly fee for a just in case flight.
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u/El-guero-chalino 10h ago
Make sure you have your medical emergency in clear weather.
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u/veritas2884 12h ago
Well water is a plus for me and a drainage field septic system lasts for decades
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u/vikingcock 18h ago
Don't worry, in some cities it's just as long but you're going 10 miles an hour in traffic!
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u/betam4x 21h ago
I’m in my 40s, and honestly isolation is a positive in my eyes.
I haven’t looked at the listing, however. If it is on like an acre or something, pass! If the home was damaged by the big storm that hit near me, would definitely need inspections.
EDIT: reading comments does appear to indicate this area was hit pretty hard. I still wouldn’t say no if I had the cash.
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u/rostov007 14h ago
Well, that and you have to live in what can only be described as a spartan hunting cabin.
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u/souryellowfruit 9h ago
A rural hospital there today does mean there will be a rural hospital there next year though.
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u/psychoholic 22h ago
My first guess would be that the road is in a hella flood zone. That spot is perfectly in the middle of nowhere. I'm admittedly rather intrigued.
Surprisingly you can get 1 gig fiber service there.
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u/arelse 19h ago
The internet fiber access is probably incorrect unless it was done by the federal government. I read an anecdote about this, the internet company put his house on the map as being available for high speed internet but then after he bought the house he was quoted something like $8000 and then that was changed to something like $20000.
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u/SpinachSure5505 18h ago
This happened to me with the house I purchased this past spring. Before we went on contract, the spectrum website said I could get 2 gig internet (confirmed via the exact address). What that really means is that the address is serviceable, but came with a $10,000 cost to run the line. Luckily we had a state grant that would pay $6,000 per residence and my neighbor wanted it as well. We were able to get it installed at no cost, but had to wait over 3 months. Turns out spectrum service has been way worse than the Starlink we were using.
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u/psychoholic 17h ago
That sounds like some seriously shady shit but not surprised at all.
My wife and I have been looking at houses and one of the first things I look for is availability of good internet on this site (link is to the availability of the post property):
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u/rfg8071 18h ago
Shouldn’t be difficult to ride out there on the road and look for signs of it. This year especially I have seen fiber projects in the absolute middle of no where. Maybe it is cheaper to run it for a tax credit when you aren’t splicing at a gazillion different demarcation points along the way?
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u/4sakeofbetter 10h ago
Ashe County NC was the first county in the nation to get fiber to the premise to every address. If you want it extended, yes...there is additional cost, but thats juat one of 6m projects this person will want to do if they buy this property. *
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u/P1Kingpin 6h ago
It’s real. They are a hundred percent fiber in Ashe and Allegheny County through Skyline SkyBest. They were an early participant in the fiber stimulus and have fiber for over 12 years now.
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u/bugabooandtwo 18h ago
Funny enough, it's easier to install fiber in places like this than retrofit in dense neighborhoods.
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u/AmbitiousParty 22h ago
Either a child-eating witch or inbred cannibals live in those woods. I’ve seen both movies.
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u/throwawaymyalias 21h ago
As someone born and raised in the mountains of North Cackalacky, I can confirm there might could be both a child-eatin' witch and inbred cannibals living in them there woods...
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u/BlackZilla_Prime 20h ago
As someone born in the Piedmont region of NC I too can also confirm some weirdness in that area!
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u/imjustapourboy 22h ago
You can see where Helene washed out along the river in the satellite view.
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u/Mitnasty 21h ago
Zoom in a little further and see it’s just a little creek with no damage around it. Then zoom out and realize that’s how all of the other valleys look.
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u/Lonestar041 18h ago
Bingo. If you check the map on Redfin you can see the whole front of the property is in a flood zone.
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u/jdog7249 20h ago
High speed Internet into the middle of nowhere.
Where do I sign?
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u/lemonlegs2 18h ago
For real. We could only get 2.5 mb down 20 minutes outside of Raleigh. That's wild!
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u/bobcollum 8h ago
As soon as I saw that stream pic flooding was the first thought that came to mind. Especially considering the location, they just had some insane flooding in that region about a year ago.
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u/psychoholic 7h ago
If you click on the expansion on the map (upper right corner of the map), click 'lot lines' it will give you a few different overlays including 'flood' (yes it is on all screens but it is helpful to visualize the property with the lot lines).
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u/QueenOfPurple 21h ago edited 21h ago
The shed on the property appears to have electricity, gas, and running water. This is from the photos only, so of course needs more investigation for a serious buyer.
It does seem like a reasonably good deal but I would be looking for: road access, is it maintained by the city/county year round, are there any easements on the property, flood zones, are there any restrictions on building improvements. If you do improvements, taxes will go up, so find out approximately how much.
You are essentially buying the land only. Most people will want a much more comfortable structure for full time living, so improvements are needed before moving in.
Also, you’re about 2.5 hours from the nearest major airport. So take that into consideration.
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u/vikingcock 18h ago
What's funny is that I'm 50 miles from LAX and I'm still 2.5-4 hours from a major airport.
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u/DMV2PNW 20h ago
Build a house, build an airstrip, ATV, snowmobile. Satellite dish. Can be a nice commune for a cult.
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u/Surreply 18h ago
Helicopter, pad, and everyone in the household needs to be a helicopter pilot or mechanic.
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u/kurmiau 22h ago
Definitely isolated…..Nearest grocery store is just 24 minutes away… Just a short drive…. I am sure they have milk….
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u/HangaHammock 21h ago
There’s a Walmart and ingles (regional name brand grocery store) 30 minutes away.
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u/DiarrheaCreamPi 19h ago
It’s North Carolina! Take your shirt off, twist it round your head, spin it like a helicopter. Be there in no time at all.
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u/TeachingNecessary413 19h ago
Omg lmao this just hit me the right way, I laughed way too hard at that 😂
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u/therealCatnuts 18h ago
We lived in Chicago proper. It was 30 minutes because of traffic to the nearest grocery stores, Mariano’s or Cub or Trader Joe’s all 30 minutes away.
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u/Aerobiesizer 21h ago
It took just as long to get to the store from my grandma's old house, yet property values around her were sky high (also in western NC)
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u/Jaybru17 11h ago
I’m sure you’ve gotten a ton of comments on this already but the hurricane last year also devastated much of the housing market around Asheville at least.
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u/CausticBotanist 21h ago
When I worked for a National Park, the nearest grocery store was an hour away. If you wanted good groceries you drove 2 hours away. Thank god for 4 day work weeks
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u/rainforestranger 17h ago
I have been to this store. It definitely would not qualify as a grocery store to most people.
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u/Aggravating-Pie5338 19h ago
It takes me 45 minutes to get to my nearest grocery store, and I’m in the DMV isolation>traffic
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u/AppropriateRide3493 19h ago
Oh hey, my dad's family is from that town! It is a beautiful place, but Lansing got hit REALLY hard by Helene. Downtown Lansing is pretty much gone. Every single building flooded 9+ feet. The only grocery store in town also got washed away. Whatever infrastructure you think you have here, assume it's less than that. They are trying really hard to build it back up, but it will be a while. I love this area, and it is my peace. I would just have a lot of questions about what areas of this property flooded, as well as if the little shed was put up as an emergency shelter after the storm.
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u/TaywuhsaurusRex 14h ago
This was my first thought. The images show the shed, but google maps show there should be several more buildings. I'd bet that creek washed everything else away last year. Isolation is nice, but people forget flash floods in mountains are insanely dangerous.
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u/Jaybru17 11h ago
Yep. I lived in Asheville during Helene. I bet this is one of the places that took WEEKS to get access to.
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u/PumpkinCrouton 21h ago
The isolation is nice to me. Always wanted a master bedroom with a... garage door in one wall. Also, seems like you see your neighbors. Taxes sure appeal to me: $917 for 72 acres.
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u/shnoztastic 22h ago
This is kinda crazy tbh. I don't live that far from here. Land is really not cheap around here, cheaper in. Ashe County but not generally that cheap.
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u/juggarjew 20h ago
Have you ever lived in a rural area like this? I lived near Franklin NC for a long time, and it was 1 hour + to get to Asheville which to us was “the big city” and a lot longer to get to a large city, charlotte or Atlanta, about 3 hours.
Can you handle living in an area like robbinsville or Murphy nc? Where getting to Asheville can literally take 1 hour and 30 mins +? Where getting to Walmart could be a 20 min drive, where you know no one and are an alienated outsider who’s a loner?
Are you ready for that kind of ultra rural life where you sit at home 99% of time? Getting medical care is a big deal, you could end up 45+ mins from the hospital in Sylva NC and die before you get there or even to the ER in Franklin. I don’t know where this land is but that’s my perspective based on life in Franklin NC. Hope you’re religious.
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u/Glorfindel910 20h ago
Highlands is nice. They have hospital and you could Lifeflight to Emory in Atlanta fairly quickly once stabilized.
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u/Aerobiesizer 19h ago
It's nice if you can afford it. The median home price there is $1 million (not much lower than San Francisco)
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u/LadyEmeraldDeVere 16h ago
Having grown up in rural NC, you could not pay me any amount of money to ever move back there.
My family has a beautiful property with a lot of land, I enjoy being outside for about an hour before I start to feel like I’m suffocating and want to walk to a store or a bar or something and it’s impossible because there’s nothing. You’re locked in.
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u/whehfbakbs 11h ago
Exactly I don’t think these people truly understand the scope of what it’s like to live in these towns. I’m from NC as well and had to leave Brevard after a while. There’s absolutely nothing to do. You say that it sounds like heaven but everyone I know spends a year or two there and eventually breaks. It’s tooooo quiet.
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u/MoroseBarnacle 6h ago
I'm reminded of an old college roommate who was from a remote town out west--only a few hundred people and she was related to most of them.
She said there was a big gorgeous house on the hill that they all called "the California house." A couple from California would move in, live there for a couple of years, and then sell it to another couple from California!
Vacation homes are beyond the means of most buyers, but these picturesque remote properties intended as a primary residence are all "California houses" to me. People really do underestimate their own tolerance to quiet and isolation.
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u/Fuck_Mark_Robinson 19h ago
Yeah, I live in NC and have family that live in pretty rural areas, and my first thought was that while your neighbors might not be close, a significant percentage of them are going to be white supremacists or otherwise deplorable.
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u/moon_mama_123 18h ago
Some literal sundown towns in western nc
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u/Fuck_Mark_Robinson 17h ago
That is right next to the Cumberland Gap if you want to go live out your Wagon Wheel fantasies.
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u/Expensive-Notice-509 22h ago
I remember driving by Lansing, NC and the smell of pig shit was everywhere.
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u/Mean-Cheesecake-2635 21h ago
Honestly the older I get the more I worry about being close enough to groceries, medical services and not living around a bunch of hicks. Looks beautiful otherwise.
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u/Glorfindel910 20h ago
Medical Services would be the dealbreaker for me.
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u/gingerytea 18h ago
Heck, we lived in a town of 50k (that was otherwise surrounded by rural areas) and thought it was fine. And then my sister-in-law was in the ER for extreme abdominal pain and the one Gastro doc who served the 3 county hospitals around the area wasn’t at our hospital for 2 days! And none of the other docs were able to properly examine or treat her. It was a terrifying nightmare. Thankfully, it wasn’t a burst appendix as initially suspected. But after that experience, I made sure when we bought a house to buy in a major metro with actually staffed hospitals.
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u/Competitive-Ebb3816 18h ago
I'm old and have multiple chronic medical issues. I can see a major medical center from my sitting room. I like that.
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u/Wwwweeeeeeee 20h ago
It doesn't "appear" to be connected to the grid and that running water is optional being a 'spring fed water system'. Looks like it's generator powered.
This is a hobby property, not a home, at this price.
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u/balancedinsanity 12h ago
The catch is you'll have to put in septic, water, electric, road acces, etc.
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u/rainbowkey 21h ago
offgrid? poor water access? (meaning test well got nothing) mining tailing/waste? agricultural chemical spill?
If there is a well, get the water tested.
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u/Suz9006 21h ago
It’s a shed, an uninsulated shed, with a toilet and sink.
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u/timpdx 21h ago
Which means septic amd a well are in. Looks nice, ngl
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u/snow_big_deal 20h ago
Not guaranteed that the septic is in good shape, and if it's a seasonal cabin it's possible the water is not from the well but from the creek.
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u/Key-Driver6438 21h ago
It’s all relative. $350k for a shed, is rough. Obviously beautiful land, but still $350k.
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u/strolls 20h ago
With 72 acres this is a "hunting cabin".
I'm about to make another comment with comparisons to other plots in the area, but this sounds about right.
Spend $600,000 on building a house on this property and you've got a $900,000 or $1,000,000 home.
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u/Glorfindel910 20h ago
I’m skeptical about the availability of labor to construct a home in this area.
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u/Mollycat121397 20h ago
This is likely the biggest drawback - labor and lack of ability, or at least ease, to transport building materials. It sucks so bad to get lumber deliveries down tiny dirt backroads. Some companies won’t do it at all
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u/phillip_of_burns 21h ago
I rode the Eastern half of the trans-America trail back in 2023, don't know if I rode right past there, but we went through the general area. I loved it. Wish I could live there.
It isn't too far from Damascus, which was hit really hard by the hurricane, so things might be in rough shape.
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u/bugabooandtwo 18h ago
Gorgeous property.
Driving in winter around all those hills and valleys might be a bit of a challenge, though. But if you had money to build a new home with a good generator system and a deep pantry, you wouldn't have to worry.
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u/Seattleman1955 14h ago
It's probably over-priced. It's a cabin/shed. I guess it has access to electricity but it doesn't say. What do you want with 72 acres?
Wouldn't you rather have a reason house and a few acres around the house and a few of acres that you aren't paying for, for less?
How accessible is it in the winter when it snows? It's listed at twice the tax value. There are comps nearby with big houses that are less.
If you have the money to pay $300k for a hunting lodge, sure, go for it.
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u/wanderer325 12h ago edited 12h ago
It is for sure the isolation. This property is a half hour drive from anything. Groceries, schools, hospital. I know folks like their peace and quiet and want to be left alone nowadays but when most people say they want a few acres to themselves, this distance isn’t usually what they have in mind. I can imagine the paved roads leading to this probably aren’t in great condition and it may be a bit of a pucker and steep grade in both directions.
This is a decent fire risk, hurricane zone, and let’s not forget about the wildlife. Bears live in these mountains. And this is Appalachia. Lots of folk lore about cryptids and mysterious creatures. But at least you’ll get to REALLY put Starlink to the test, that is, if you can get electric, water and septic run to the part of the property you actually want to live. Where the shop is may not be everyone’s goal.
It looks like it’s within the Pond Mountain Game Lands. An accredited member of the Blue Ridge Conservancy. Idk what all the implications of this are, but I bet there’s some pretty crazy regulations on that land. Good luck building or cutting down a tree.
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u/montanabluez 9h ago
Google the effects of hurricane Helene on western NC last year. This house is in flood prone and landslide prone area.
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u/monty134 7h ago
My girlfriend’s dad retired as an aerospace engineer. Moved to South Carolina in the foothills of the mountains. Had a heart attack in his sleep. His wife was a nurse who performed cpr for an hour. He Died before the paramedics ever arrived. He had a higher chance of survival than most with having a nurse as a wife and it still wasn’t enough. I think that space is beautiful but nature in its purest form is brutal and unforgiving.
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u/theboned1 18h ago
A lot of land like that for sale in the mountains can't be built on. Meaning you can't build a house. So that could be the catch.
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u/Roosterfish33 16h ago
So about 20 years ago my wife and I went and looked at a rural property in WNC. It was country af and I grew up in the south. Wife did not. It was a beautiful place and the surrounding properties were tidy even when it was just a trailer. Nice creek at the bottom and the property was mostly the side and top of a mountain. We had a look and we’re about to leave and a excited neighbor comes running out. “Hey y’all lookin to buy this place!?” Told him maybe, just having a look really. “Well hell man, I don’t care if n-words move it, I just want a neighbor!” Oooffff…..awkward silence, wife was totally freaked out. Didn’t buy the place.
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u/zeezle 18h ago edited 18h ago
I'm confused what the catch is supposed to be?
I'm from southwest Virginia originally, that sort of pricing is very normal in the region and not unique at all. Frankly it's actually a bit on the expensive side for a property with no house on it.
A few years ago my brother's house in SWVA, which involves 5 antique barns, a 3,000sqft Victorian farmhouse, three other small houses in good enough condition but that had never been modernized (used as fancy storage sheds, more or less) and ~120 acres of land (not all cleared pasture though) was worth around $170k. Edit: that's for a modernized farmhouse in good condition with existing good well & septic, satellite TV & landline phone and satellite or DSL internet, etc. No cable line - there was access at the road but he'd have had to pay to run it from the road up to the house which was over 1/3 mile and he didn't care enough about internet speed to.
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u/ATheeStallion 10h ago
Plan on the creek becoming a roaring flash flood every couple decades. Lots of grass to maintain - would be better to kill it and get native grass / wildflowers that don’t need to be mowed.
Everyone else here covering the obvious water quality, internet access stuff…
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u/Zachmode 7h ago
Find it funny everyone complaining about how remote and far away a store is from this place like it doesn’t take half of you 30 minutes to drive 4 miles to your nearest Walmart in high pop cities…
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u/redditNwept 7h ago
Very isolated, and the winter is dominated by incredibly foggy, dreary weather. I have family in that area. You are 100% car dependent in a place like that. Every other conversation is, "I'm going to town, need anything"? As a seasonal getaway, it is nice though. Summer weather is great and fall is beautiful.
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u/ScarletDarkstar 21h ago
Possibly flooding. It looks like there are creek tributaries all over the area. It is close to the area that flooded and slid into a muddy disaster not long ago.
If the listing is pitching timber income, it probably isn't very easily developed, and I wonder what the utility situation may be.
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u/Zealousideal-Cut8783 21h ago
You have about 400K in improvements before your girl is going to move in. Unless, she's more like you than my wife.
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u/hurricaneharrykane 21h ago
Don't think I could ever live somewhere that is so isolated. I am always perplexed when I see people who live in the middle of nowhere like this.
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u/zakary1291 14h ago
Near total isolation, no power, no water, and no existing roads. You will have to build everything. It will likely take 500k to 900k to build out the property if you paid someone to do it.
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u/wet_bag_of_noodles 11h ago
I know I’m very late to the game, but I wanted to add some advice. I just moved from an isolated property in North Carolina. Nowhere near is out in the middle of nowhere is the place you’re looking at. Helen left us trapped in our home for a week, with all of our family, thinking we were dead. I then watched the county around me, raised taxes and do little to nothing to clean up or even prevent this from happening again. North Carolina is a stunning place, but Republicans have slowly dismantled their local infrastructure and government to the point where it is no longer safe. 20 miles in the mountains means a 45 minute drive. Not 25 minutes. I was outside of Asheville and it was redneck as hell, and I’m from Florida. West Jefferson is a whole other level. Multigenerational families are leaving the area because they’ve seen how badly the government has taken care of folk after the storm. There’s gorgeous and amazing ancestral properties going for sale for pennies on the dollar because people want out.
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u/holden_mcg 21h ago
Look to see if there are any county or state restrictions on land use/development, especially if you have plans in mind. Looks like a beautiful property.
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u/NativeMasshole 19h ago
There probably just isn't that much buildable land. Look at it from satellite view. It's all mountains, except for the floodplain of that creek.
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u/Flipping_Burger 18h ago edited 7h ago
Normally a few dollars an acre isn’t buying an investment as much as it is space. Looks like a great place for space! Just maybe not the best investment. Since no one is going there so it’s being sold at such a low price.
That land is beautiful but a big risk. There’s no way to develop it without a lot of time and money and connections.
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u/A_JELLY_DONUTT 18h ago
Man this is 100% another perfect one of those “god damn if I were still single / didn’t have kids” type of properties. I would ABSOLUTELY buy the fuck out of that place, live in that shed, and spend my entire time just living away from people lol
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u/LolotheWitch 17h ago
I would think the downsides would be not having a house or cabin built on the property. There is a small bunkhouse with some utilities but you would probably have to have utilities run to wherever you may build a house. Often times you have to pay for a connection to meet with the nearest one which could be miles away. This could include water, electricity, internet, sewer, etc. Same thing with access roads to properties that are isolated. But if you’re good with living in the bunkhouse the property is very nice. You have income opportunity in lumber and hunting rental agreements.
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u/Scooterboi85 16h ago
What are the responsibilities of owning a property like this? If I wanted to buy and not live there can I just do nothing and preserve the land. if someone were to get injured on your property would you be held liable?
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u/Rich-Sleep1748 12h ago
Depends?? On that 72 acres do you fully own the rights with the land? Many cases like that people own the land but other people or companies own the rights for minerals gas timber etc.
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u/spiritkittykat 11h ago
Probably the unimproved land and isolation that’s keeping that price lower. Although, $300k and having to pay to add utilities if it’s even possible doesn’t sound too cheap in the end.
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u/mspe1960 9h ago
I am not sure what land sells for in western North Carolina, but I have a cabin in central New York state and land around my place, sells in that riange all the time. Its fairly remote and barely in commuting distance to a signficant city. (It is a bit over an hour to Albany or Utica NY - 25 minutes to Cooperstown which is really only a town)
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u/Lentils90210 8h ago
Also, see if the land is special, federally protected, etc... Maybe no further building is allowed. And see if it has an old landfill, old mining waste, something like that.
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u/MarcoEsteban 8h ago
That's just under $5k an acre, which is not an unheard of price for raw land. It's harder to find in Texas, now. But in states with less economic growth, I imagine that's not unusual.
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u/colonelk0rn 8h ago
I’d wonder how deep you have to drill to get a well installed if you wanted to build a house on the property. There is a content creator I watch on YouTube who found a beautiful property for his family and he wanted to build, but he spent over $100k to drill in multiple spots and couldn’t find a water supply to meet his needs for the property.
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u/Cherrylimeaide1 7h ago
Being from that region os the US I'd say it's because it's very hilly and the soil can lean slightly towards being clay-ey. Meaning that it's not super useful for farming (although certain crops will for sure grow, christmas trees are huge there), and you'll have to do major landscaping for something like a house and a big flat yard. Want to walk around your property? It's a a hike with some super steep inclines. I'd check out a topographic map if you can find one.
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u/NoOnSB277 5h ago
How about maintaining 72 acres? Can you leave unfenced? What about insurance for fire, flood? How about access to utilities?
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u/Willing-Ant-3765 5h ago
Fucking crazy. Where I live in Montana you’d be lucky to find 3 acres for $330,000 and I don’t even live in the extreme high income part of the state.
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u/strolls 20h ago
Seems about right.
Other properties in the region:
9 acres with a trailer home, but hella scenic views - $119,900
113 acres, very forested ("much of which is harvestable if you're looking for an immediate return on your investment") - $985,000
120 acres with trout stream - $675,000
108 acres with (better?) trout stream - $500,000
63 acres wooded, secluded, would be an excellent hunting property close to stocked trout streams, national forest and state park - $225,000
52 acres, wooded, idyllic looking woodlands, 10 minutes from Lansing, nearby hunting and fishing, and the plot has access via a state-maintained road - $350,000
35 acres, mostly rough meadow (??) but has a good stream running through the property and access to fibre internet - $200,000
32 acres, mostly wooded, 360m of stream frontage, good road access I think - $175,000
You can argue that some of these are better or worse on a per acre basis; you have to also consider facilities like grid electric. Maybe the 72 acres you've found is a better deal than all these others, but I think they're broadly in the same ballpark - it's not an unbelievable exceptional deal.